DUBUQUE, Iowa - Of the 519,000 early ballots requested in the state of Iowa, 348,000 are already in.

In Dubuque County officials have filled requests for about 19,000 early ballots. That's about 28 percent of all registered voters in the county.

Of the 17,000 ballots requested, about 12,000 have already been returned. On top of that, another 1,500 voters have already cast their ballot early at the auditor's office.

During Tuesday's busy lunch hour at Clarke University, voters found their ballots then quickly cast their votes. Many said they're getting it done now because anything could happen on election day. "It's a lot easier for me because before I had no idea. Apparently you have to got to the Dubuque Auditor's Center. I was confused as to where that was," Clarke student Corrin Larkin said.

A computerized database shows poll workers a complete list of all the registered voters in Dubuque County. Any registered voter can cast a ballot at any satellite location.

"We take some ballots from every polling site in the county. So we have 46 of 47 different styles of ballot out there," said Dubuque County Auditor Denise Dolan. She said that convenience is creating record numbers. "I anticipate since we have 10 more days of early voting were going to get to 25, 000 early votes. That means more than 50 percent of the people will have voted before we open the polls at 7 a.m. on Election Day."